Numbers 6:22-27 | "He Will Give You Peace"

I. Reading of Scripture

Numbers 6:22–27 ESV

22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

II. Introduction

The title of this sermon is:

Title | He Will Give You Peace

This is not a platitude. This is a promise.

God will give you peace! Because peace is something only God can give.

A. Introduction to Theme

Peace is a fruit of God’s character (Gal 5:22). Peace is intrinsic to God’s nature — it is who He is! God is the God of peace. Peace is what we experience in God’s presence.

QUESTION: How do we know if we need peace? Let me ask it in a more personal way: How do YOU know if you need peace?

The answer is really quite simple: When we realize we don’t have it!

History has shown that some of the most wealthy celebrities and athletes have bought houses and cars and lifestyles without giving any thought to needing money because they had so much of it.

Until the day the manager called to say the money ran out! Until, they didn’t have any more. Then they realized they needed it.

Food is the same way. We can eat and become full without giving any thought of needing food for survival, because we have it.

Until we open the pantry and its empty. Until we run out. Then we realize we need it.

We take relationships for granted and fail to properly appreciate them. Have we not heard it said: “We won’t realize what we’re missing until it’s gone!.”

We know we need peace if we’ve ever experienced a time without it.

And so it is, that

The absence of peace in our lives is a symptom that something is not right in our relationship with God!

I want you to examine your life right now. Are you at perfect peace?

Peace is a word that has many senses. It describes wholeness. It means everything is intact. Complete. Sound. In harmony. (See BDB, CHALOT, LN).

Are you at perfect peace? Or is there something that is causing you to experience all of the enemies of peace: fear, anxiety, concern, unhappiness, scarcity, lack, division, war...?

Asked another way:

QUESTION | What is something that you want, but do not have?

When what we want doesn’t materialize in what we have, we don’t have peace. There is not a harmony. Things as we see them, are out of balance.

What is keeping you from having peace?

Put a name to it. Write it down if you can. What is causing you to not have perfect peace?

Whatever that is for you, that is where God wants to meet you today. That is where something is not right in your relationship with God. That is an area you have not given over to God, or trusted Him with.

The message of this Advent Sunday is that God will give you peace today. But God’s peace is found in only one place — HIM.

Ephesians 2:14 says that Jesus Christ himself “is our peace.”

When sin entered into the world, all of humanity learned in a moment what they always had but had now lost in God — the peace of God. Peace with God.

As God began the process of redemption, restoring humanity’s relationship with God, that process included bringing peace to the world — the peace of Heaven to Earth.

This is the Christmas message that is good news of great joy for all people, the message announced by the angel and heavenly host to the shepherds in the field:

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

B. Introduction to the Text | Numbers 6:22-23

When that message of peace was announced to the shepherds, it was not the first time the Scriptures had proclaimed the peace of God.

Have you ever wondered why there is so much depth to the Christmas story?

In its simplest form, the Christmas story is that a baby was born — And yet in God’s story the birth of Jesus involves so much more!

Space is given in God’s Word to the Preparations. Prophecies. Provisions. Angels. Shepherds. Wisemen. Gifts. Worship. The Christmas story is what it is NOT because it stands on its own, but because of all that came before!

The Savior that was born had been promised and expected for a long time! The peace of Christ now come was something hoped for and sought after by God’s people for a long time!

And they were reminded of this promise and peace every year through words of blessing spoken by the mouths of priests.

Perhaps the most powerful blessing is this high-priestly blessing, recorded in the words of Numbers 6:24-26.

Numbers 6:22–23 ESV

22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

Notice that this blessing began with the LORD. “The LORD spoke to Moses.”

All of God’s blessings begin with God. Peace begins with God.

Prescriptions will not give us peace. Possessions will not give us peace. Our Preferences (having things go our way) will not give us peace. Only what is given by God will give us peace.

Anything that we have that we think is a blessing, if it didn’t come from God it’s not a blessing.

This is a blessing that began with the LORD and was given through Moses to Aaron and his sons.

Aaron was the high priest. Aaron’s sons were the priests.

As priests, they stood between God and His people, mediating God’s Word and mediating God’s peace.

While the priests would bless the people at various times, as the people entered the sanctuary for worship or after a sacrifice had been offered (JS) there was this special blessing once a year, on the Day of Atonement.

Aaron, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to picture God’s provision for making His people right with Him.

Aaron would then come out, and bless the people with the words of this high-priestly blessing. And in speaking this blessing to the people, he was speaking on behalf of the LORD, telling the people what the LORD will do.

Notice how in each of these three verses, The LORD’s name is given. The LORD, The LORD, The LORD....

With each mention of the LORD’s name is an action that God will do.

For each action that God will do, this blessings also gives a meaning of that action.

The last meaning, is the culmination of the entire blessing and our theme for today: He Will Give You Peace.

III. Exposition

A. Numbers 6:24 | bless you…keep you

Numbers 6:24 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you;

1. Bless | בָּרַךְ

The Lord will bless you. Meaning God will make good abound to you. God will give good gifts to you.

God wants good for you!

Jesus said:

Matthew 7:9–11 ESV

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

We may be hearing this message and think: “Well God doesn’t seem so good given what I’m going through right now.” That’s because we are defining what “good” is and judging God’s goodness by our own measurements. No!

This blessing begins with God, and so our understanding of blessing must be what God first says it is.

When I ask someone “How are you doing,” most people say “I’m good.” Occasionally someone will say “I am blessed.”

We want to be blessed by God! It’s not a bad thing to be blessed by God!

Listen to what Jesus said of the end times in Matthew 25:31-34 —

Matthew 25:31–34 ESV

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

There will be a clear division between those who are blessed, and those who are cursed.

Matthew 25:41 ESV

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

This is or should be the greatest fear in life — that is how we will spend eternity: as those who inherit the kingdom or as those who depart into eternal fire.

God’s action of blessing involves all God is doing to save us from fire, to make us his own children, and to give us an eternal inheritance with Him.

But this blessing reveals one area many do not have peace. That is the area of eternal security.

When God blesses us, it means God keeps us.

Numbers 6:24 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you;

2. Keep | שָׁמַר

God protects us. God watches over us. God guards us.

Luke 2:8 ESV

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

What the shepherds were doing with their sheep on the night the angel appeared to them to announce Christ’s birth in Bethlehem is the same thing God does for us. He keeps watch over us.

Because of God’s blessing we have God’s security. And we can face all the dangers of life knowing that nothing will happen to us that God is not overseeing. Nothing will happen to us that is not outside of God’s control.

Psalm 23:4 ESV

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

B. Numbers 6:25 | make his face shine on you…be gracious to you

Numbers 6:25 ESV

25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

1. Shine | אוֹר

The action of the LORD is that he will make his face shine upon you. That means God won’t hide his face from you (NET).

Have you ever seen someone’s face light up?

A person’s face lights up or shines when that person is looking favorably at you (JS). They are happy to see you. They are not embarrassed and hiding.

God will make his face shine upon you and cast away all darkness.

And this is another area where many need peace. They fear not only security, but also support. Will God support me?

This blessing tells us that because God does not hide his face, because God will make his face shine upon you —

2. Gracious | חָנַן

God will support you! (NET).

God look at you with favor, and God will bestow that favor upon you by his grace!

He will deliver you from enemies, he will save, he will forgive sin, he will answer prayers when you are in distress (JS).

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

And in a similar way,

C. Numbers 6:26 | turn his face toward you…give you peace

Numbers 6:26 ESV

26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

1. Lift | נָשָׂא

When a face is fallen, that is a face of anger. But God lifts his face upon you. He lifts up his countenance upon you.

God has every reason to be angry with us because of our sin.

Hell, and the lake of fire exist to show how angry God is at sin.

But God does not stay angry forever.

Psalm 103:8–14 ESV

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

All who fear God and know his gift of salvation in Jesus may have security, support, and forgiveness of sin.

God lifts his face toward us, and this means God gives us peace.

2. Give | שׂוּם

God does not with-hold, but God gives: Peace, completeness, health, safety, well-being (JS). He is attentive to us.

IV. Conclusion | Numbers 6:27

The only question that remains, is WHO receives this blessing?

Numbers answers it this way:

Numbers 6:27 ESV

27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Those who receive the name receive the blessing.

And that is the message of the Gospel!

A. Gospel Proclamation

Jesus received the name: Immanuel, God with Us.

Colossians 1:19–20 ESV

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Unlike Aaron who entered into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement with the blood of an animal to sprinkle on the mercy seat, Jesus, our Great High Priest, entered into the curtain in heaven and offered His own blood once for all.

This is one reason why we celebrate his birth. He came to bleed — on the cross. He came to make us right with God by giving his life in our place for our sin.

He died to take our sin. He rose to life so that He might bless us with His name.

A name represents ownership. And church, God purchased us with his blood, the blood of Jesus (Acts 20:28). And that means we are blessed by God, and we have peace with God.

The LORD spoke this blessing to Moses to speak to Aaron to speak to the people.

In the Gospel of John, beginning in Chapter 14, Jesus begins what is called his “final discourse.” His final sayings before the cross.

The final discourse is broken into two parts.

Both parts end with Jesus proclaiming peace.

John 14:27 ESV

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Again in John 16:33

John 16:33 ESV

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

When Jesus said that, Jesus was speaking as God himself.

And then in John 17, the next chapter, Jesus prays what is known as the “High Priestly Prayer.”

It is no coincidence that what Jesus was doing was what God was doing in Numbers 6.

The message is clear: Jesus does not speak another blessing — Jesus IS THE BLESSING.

Romans 5:1 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the total fulfillment of all that Numbers 6 anticipates.

And so all the promised blessings become ours in Jesus Christ.

And these blessings are not merely proclaimed over us, but they are implanted in us.

Galatians 5:22–24 ESV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Jesus — He will give you peace. It is what this season is all about.

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Amen.